From Bush, Some Flexibility on Election Promises
Observers See Administration Changing Course on International Trade, Campaign Finance, Foreign Policy
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 25, 2002; Page A08
washingtonpost.com
President Bush and his aides came to office with an almost religious devotion to honoring his campaign promises. Lately, his approach appears to have become more flexible.
In recent days, the White House has taken positions on international trade, foreign policy and campaign finance reform that seem to contradict the president's campaign stances, a number of political observers in both parties say. Partially because of the counterterrorism war and partially because of a natural transition into the second year of governing, GOP strategists say -- and a few White House officials agree -- that the campaign commitments are no longer as binding as they once were.
On Wednesday, for example, President Bush said he would sign the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform legislation into law. In early 2000, Bush was asked on ABC News whether he would veto the bill, and he replied, "Yes, I would."
On Friday, the administration imposed duties averaging 29 percent on Canadian "softwood" lumber. During the campaign, Bush talked about establishing "free trade from northernmost Canada to the tip of Cape Horn."
Earlier this month, the administration imposed tariffs of up to 30 percent on steel imports, prompting European Union officials last week to assemble retaliatory trade barriers. In his 1999 memoir, Bush wrote, "I do not support import fees." When he announced his candidacy in June 1999, he said, "I'll work to end tariffs and break down barriers everywhere, entirely, so the whole world trades in freedom."
On Feb. 25, Bush appeared on the South Lawn to inspect hybrid-fuel cars and to tout a tax credit for buying such vehicles. During the campaign, he mocked Al Gore's "targeted" tax credits, including one for such vehicles. "How many of you own hybrid electric-gasoline engine vehicles?" Bush often asked to laughter.
Bush has also altered his aversion to "nation building," as the United States helps to create a democracy and stable government in Afghanistan. "The vice president believes in nation building," Bush said in a presidential debate, to distinguish himself from Gore. "I would be very careful about using our troops as nation builders."
Officially, Bush aides say he remains as faithful to his campaign promises as ever, despite changes mandated by the Sept. 11 attacks and the recession. "The president has an extraordinary record of living up to his campaign commitments, and, as a result, he's built a relationship of trust with the American people because they know they can count on him to do the things he says," said White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan.
White House officials point out that Bush's top two campaign promises -- a tax cut and education reform -- have become law, and that others, including efforts to aid charities and adopt a national energy policy, are working their way through Congress.
Even in areas where Bush has apparently shifted, some of his aides argue otherwise. They say his steel and wood tariffs are consistent with his pledge to enforce the nation's trade laws. They say he always supported some campaign finance reforms. They say the Afghan operation does not qualify as nation building. And they say he never opposed hybrid-vehicle tax credits -- only Gore's overall tax policy.
But others say, and some Bush aides privately agree, that Bush's fealty to campaign promises has inevitably changed. The Sept. 11 attacks have rewritten the national agenda, while the Enron Corp. collapse has raised new doubts about money in politics, and the recession and shrinking federal revenue have reversed budget plans.
"The only front-burner issue of moment is the war, and the other issues become a case of triage," said Bill Dal Col, a GOP strategist who ran Steve Forbes's primary challenge to Bush. "Because of the war, they have to look at everything through that lens. He's got to govern, and he's got to govern in a time of crisis."
A senior White House aide concurred. "The circumstances have changed, and the president has adopted an agenda to meet those circumstances," the official said, arguing that Bush's second-year agenda has switched, by necessity, from campaign issues to the three issues from Bush's State of the Union address: war, recession and homeland security.
Democratic partisans charge that Bush is guilty of the same trait for which he faulted Gore: "saying anything to get elected," or "saying one thing and doing another." Bush, by contrast, was billed as a man who said what he meant and meant what he said.
"Once again, we see that George W. Bush is a man of his most recent word," Democratic National Committee Chairman Terence R. McAuliffe charged last month. "George Bush said a lot of things and made a lot of promises during the campaign, but he has no plans of keeping those promises."
McAuliffe released that invective after Bush announced that Yucca Mountain in Nevada would become the main burying place for the nation's nuclear waste. During the campaign, Bush stated that "sound science, and not politics, must prevail" in Yucca. Nevada officials complain that Bush ignored a study by the congressional General Accounting Office from December that said scientific testing to determine the facility's viability would not be complete before 2006. Sen. Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said Bush "broke his promise," and Gore called the decision a "flat-out broken promise."
A Bush adviser said the president's action last month was not the last word on Yucca, pointing out that the science would be reviewed for years, during the debate in Congress and later during the regulatory application process.
When staffers showed up for work at the White House last year, they were given a booklet of "campaign commitments" that would dominate the year. Now, with Bush enjoying lofty poll numbers and the nation on a war footing, GOP strategists believe the president can afford to violate a pledge or two as long as he stays true to his basic principles of strong defense, tax cuts, gun ownership and opposition to abortion. "The Bush people figured out a long time ago there are only a few cardinal points you can't change if you're a Republican," said GOP strategist Tom Cole, a former chief of staff at the Republican National Committee. Otherwise, he said, "you have tremendous leeway."
The recession has made a mess of Bush's early projections about the size of the federal budget surplus and his vow to keep off-limits Social Security payroll taxes. "For years, politicians in both parties have dipped into the trust fund to pay for more spending," he said during the campaign. Bush made exceptions in the case of recession or war, both of which have occurred. On the other hand, Bush argued shortly after taking office that "we can proceed with tax relief without fear of budget deficits, even if the economy softens."
The violence in the Middle East has made it impossible for Bush to honor his campaign promise to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. "As soon as I take office, I will begin the process of moving the U.S. ambassador to the city Israel has chosen as its capital," Bush said. His campaign slammed President Bill Clinton and Gore for being too slow to honor their own promises to move the embassy. But last June, Bush delayed the move, approved by Congress in 1995, by six months. In December, he delayed it by another six months. An aide said he still intends to move the embassy.
More debatable is Bush's vow to take a hard line with sanctions against Cuba. "I will keep the current sanctions in place," Bush promised in August 2000. Many Cuban Americans took that to mean Bush would end Clinton's blocking of lawsuits against foreign companies that use property in Cuba that was confiscated from Americans. Those sanctions are part of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, but Clinton used waivers to block them.
Once in office, Bush, too, extended the waivers twice. Rep. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), said the president "broke one of his campaign promises." Bush aides said he never meant to imply he would end the Clinton waivers.
The only campaign promise Bush aides acknowledge that the president violated was his pledge to place restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions as part of a "four pollutant" environmental strategy. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Todd Whitman confirmed the "four pollutant" policy early last year, but the White House reversed her, saying the campaign commitment had been made in error. Bush sent a letter to GOP lawmakers in March opposing mandatory limits on carbon dioxide. |
